Sony Reimagines OLIVER TWIST as Heist Movie DODGE AND TWIST; Oliver and the Artful Dodger Are 20 Years Older

Sony is developing a reimagining of Charles Dickens‘ second novel, Oliver Twist. The unfortunate working title, Dodge and Twist, clues us in to the fact that the update will focus on the Artful Dodger and Oliver Twist—only twenty years after the events of the book, according to Heat Vision. Screenwriter Cole Haddon plans to add the extra twist (and dodge) that “the two are on opposite sides of the law and get embroiled in an affair to steal the Crown Jewels.” So Dickens fans, this one may not be for you. On the other hand, isn’t a 19th century heist movie really for all of us?

Matt Tolmach (The Amazing Spider-Man) and Ahmet Zappa (The Odd Life of Timothy Green) will produce. Sony is reportedly fast tracking the project, so expect to hear more soon. Hit the jump to watch the sufficiently relevant Dodger/Twist number “Consider Yourself” from the musical Oliver!.

Here is the not-so-relevant synopsis for Dickens’ Oliver Twist:

Set against London’s seedy back street slums, Oliver Twist is the saga of a workhouse orphan captured and thrust into a thieves’ den, where some of Dickens’s most depraved villains preside: the incorrigible Artful Dodger, the murderous bully Sikes, and the terrible Fagin, that treacherous ringleader whose grinning knavery threatens to send them all to the “ghostly gallows.” Yet at the heart of this drama is the orphan Oliver, whose unsullied goodness leads him at last to salvation. [Amazon]